March 5, 2013

Normally Southwest Florida's pretty quiet on a Monday night, but not last Monday, when Kid Rock and Buckcherry blew through town, leaving fans who gathered at Germain Arena very pleased with their top-notch performances.

Hellbound Glory opened up the show, getting the crowd moving, energized, amped and ready for a night of non-stop beats, cheers and rocker horns galore.

Up next, Buckcherry kept the crowd movin' with a shorter-than-expected-yet-still-sweet set, featuring some of their biggest hits from their career, including "All Night Long," "Sorry," "Wrath," "Lit Up," and concluding with "Crazy Bitch."

The local Shriners announced the generosity of Kid Rock during a set break before his performance. Photo by MELISSA SCHNEIDER.

After a 30-minute break and show-starting reminder from the Jim Beam Kid Rock concert countdown, Kid Rock took the stage, making an entrance by shooting out from a trap door beneath the set.

He opened with a song from his latest album, Rebel Soul, called "Celebrate." From there, it was a non-stop entertaining mix of old and new, complete with the Detroit rocker taking over the DJ booth to lay down some of his own slick tracks as "Bobby Shazam," while sipping on a shot of Jim Beam and puffing on an overstuffed "cigar."

He performed an amazing rendition of "Only God Knows Why," and even sung his top-of-the-charts duet, "Picture," with a lovely musician from his band. I didn't expect to hear this song that night, as Sheryl Crowe recently came through the area on her own tour, and didn't think he'd sing it without her, but it was a pleasant surprise.

The technical mix of pyrotechnics, smoke, confetti, streamers and balloons coming from the stage was electric, and the crowd kept cheering him on for more.

The musician honestly seemed to appreciate all of the fan love, and appeared humbled and bashful by the barage of cheering and chanting from the crowd.

Toward the end of his set, he took the time to look through the crowd and plucked a lovely lady from the front of the audience, who had been to at least four Kid Rock shows, rocking an old-school concert Tee from one of his first tours, and who was also rocking a Detroit tatoo.

The girl was in awe as he sat her down on the stage with him and sang the Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" to her on his acoustic guitar.

As soon as he was done with the serenade, he handed her his guitar and she almost keeled over in delight.

Getting back into hard-core rockin, other old-school tracks he performed included "American Badass," "Cowboy" and "Bawitaba," which was the first of a three-song encore.

And, of course when the music started to "All Summer Long," the crowd got back up in a roar.

New-school tracks from his most recent album performed that night included "Celebrate," "Rebel Soul," "Chickens in the Pen," and "Redneck Paradise," finishing off his first set with "Born Free."

After the first of a two-part encore, singing "Bawitaba" and bringing the crowd back to the late '90s, Kid Rock and his band returned, complete with matching gold-sequined coats, performing "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" and "Happy New Year."

All in all, Kid Rock put on an amazing performance that was well-deserved and well worth the pretty affordable ticket prices. He was just as energized and non-stop with the crowd as he was when he first started rising to fame in the '90s.

His very talented band, which consisted of three back-up singers, a fantastic tenor saxophonist, acoustic guitarist, electric guitarist, bassist, drummer, DJ?and percussionist, perfectly complemented Kid's music, and it was a pleasure to watch and enjoy throughout the entire 1.5-hour-long performance.

That evening, before even taking the stage, Kid Rock personally donated thousands of copies of his new album, Rebel Soul, to our local Shriner's group, to sell and use the money to help fund their multiple, local, charitable endeavors. The Shriners sold them throughout the night for $10, and thousands of fans were happy to have both helped a local charity while getting their hands on KR's most recent work. Plus, it was a friendly reminder of how caring and helpful the talented musician is with his American fans.

The Rebel Soul tour continues traveling through the U.S., with several stops scheduled for Tennessee, Kentucky, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and a long trek through his home state of Michigan before concluding in Nebraska toward the end of June.

Plans are in the works to release a "Devil Without A Cause: 15th Anniversary Edition" sometime in 2013.

For more information on Kid Rock and his rockin' ride of trippin' travels, visit KidRock.com.